CDC: Black men not smoking as much

October 10, 2003

For the first time, the smoking rate among black men in the United States has dipped to nearly that among white men. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that 27.7 percent of black men smoked in 2001, compared to 25.4 percent of white men. A decade before, the rates were 35 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Although the CDC does not know exactly what has caused the sharp drop, officials believe changes in attitudes among black youths three decades earlier have helped reduce the number of today's adult smokers.

SECURITY AT GUANTANAMO: Nearly two dozen investigators are searching for possible security breaches at the U.S. prison for terror suspects, officials said Thursday after espionage charges heightened tensions.

Investigators will try to establish how a translator already under investigation got secret clearance and was allowed onto the base, and how a second translator managed to leave with classified information. A Muslim chaplain is also under investigation after allegedly leaving with diagrams of the prison.

INSANITY DEFENSE: Lee Boyd Malvo's lawyers said Thursday they will mount an insanity defense at his murder trial in the Washington sniper case, arguing that the teenager was a victim of "indoctrination" by John Allen Muhammad.

SCREENERS' TEST CHALLENGED: The written tests given to potential baggage screeners at airports never asked applicants to show they could identify dangerous objects inside luggage. In addition, screeners hired by the government to check baggage for bombs were given most of the answers to the tests, according to an internal investigation by the Homeland Security Department.

HAND ME A JACK: An 18-year-old from Utah whose leg was pinned under his overturned Jeep managed to reach a car jack, ratchet up the vehicle and free himself.

As Clancy Wright lay trapped last week south of Salt Lake City, he said he thought of the climber whose arm had been pinned by a boulder last spring.